Life's Soundtrack, A SYOC Story
by jonquils
Summary: Jordans, Washington is a sleepy little town where nothing big happens. Life is a bit of a bore, but what if a new club pops up this school year? Perhaps it's time to change the tempo of Kelser High and add a new melody to this place's song. (SYOC Open)
1. High School's Overrated

Jess weaves her way through the halls, doing her best to dodge large groups of classmates who always seemed to congregate and crowd the walk ways. 'Why on earth would you have a social meeting in the middle of a busy corridor?' Caught up in her thoughts, Jess nearly missed the football player that was barreling straight towards her. 'Jesus Christ!' Were Jess' thoughts as she barely managed to lay straight up against the wall, the large boy just barely misses her. 'Always rushing to places with no time to take notice of others.' She rolls her eyes only for a flyer to catch her attention.

The piece of paper easily comes off the cork board with a small tug. She reads the flyer with curiosity written all over her face. "COME AND JOIN THE GLEE CLUB!" The words are written in bright blue ink, stars and smiley faces lined the empty space on the paper. She lets out a light scoff. 'Why on earth would the school waste their money on such a trivial club?' Most of the school's funding went straight to athletics, it's a wonder how any of the others clubs could even run. The other question was who on earth was the moderator? Did a glee club need a moderator or a coach? Regardless, there's no way Mr. Moritz was running it. The old band teacher could play concertos with no problem, but the former smoker's voice sounded too much like a foghorn to produce a good tune. Jess gives the paper one last look before letting out a soft scoff. She crumples the flyer and tosses it over her shoulder.

And while the crumpled ball of paper sails in the air, a small part of her mind latches onto the idea of a glee club.

Kelser High School was much like any public school. If you were a jock or a cheerleader, congratulations you're part of the social elite. Into band and prancing around on stage singing show tunes? Such a shame, see as you'd be getting a ice cold slushy to the face on the regular. Where they pulled that from is a mystery to Jess, must've been from some stupid sitcom.

The school was located in the small town of Jordans, Washington. It's so small that you've been going to school with the same kids since preschool. It was safe to say that you really weren't going up the social ladder if you had been rock bottom since you were a kid.

Jess was one of the many kids who were desperately trying to make her way out of the town. Not to say it was a bad place to be, it's just that once you've spent all of your life in a tiny town you really do want to get out. Not a lot of kids did leave though. Most went to the local college a couple ours in the city and after that, they'd return and start either a family or continue the family business. Lots of fun.

Jess continued to walk through the hallway, musing over the idea of a glee club until something broke her train of thoughts. Or rather someone. "Jessica, my friend, how are you this wondrous day? I brought you a cup of coffee and you're favorite muffin just because I love you." If this had been an anime, you'd see a vein or one of those angry symbols pop up right on her temple. She slowly turns to see a blonde with a dazzling smile. Or at least that's what he'd like to think.

"What do you want Josh?" Her deadpan tone caused his smile to falter, but only just a tad.

"Moi? I don't want anything but to celebrate out lovely, amazing friendship." Josh cranked up the watts on his smile hoping to fool (or perhaps blind) the Asian girl.

"Okay, cut the crap Hutcherson." Jess' face had switched to a pointed look, almost making Josh flinch. He would have if the two hadn't been childhood friends.

"You know that's more of a compliment than it is an insult, although he is incredibly short." A light smack on the arm immediately gets him to stop. "Ow! Okay! I can never fool you, let alone fool around with you. No, wait. That sounds wrong. I meant joke."

The pout on Josh's face elicits a snort from his friend. "Oh gosh don't go there. And stop pouting. You're a teenage boy, not a pre-pubescent girl complaining about the woes of being a Justin Bieber and One Direction fan."

He responds with an overly dramatic gasp. "I am appalled by that analogy." He crosses his arms and lets out an indignant huff. "Give me some credit; my music taste is much better than that."

"Your Spotify playlist says otherwise." Jess let's out a chuckle at how easy it was to rile up her friend. "Anyways, you only use that smile combined with your so called 'sweet talk' when you really want something. You even brought bribes this time, so out with it."

"Well," He drags out the last part of the word for some unneeded emphasis. "I found this one of these lovely flyers posted right next to our lockers." A copy of the glee flyer is held right up to her eyes and the smile is back on his face.

"That's great and all but, uh you sound like a dying whale when you try to sing. And the last time you went to a school dance, you somehow managed to nearly break your date's toe."

He rolls his eyes, not even bothering to argue with her as those statements were very much true (In his defense, the toe thing was entirely accidental and the running back was to blame. Not his fault he asked his crush first). "Not for me, you dunce!" She shoots him a glare and actually gets him to flinch this time around. "For you! You're always complaining about how you lack of a musical outlet, outside of band at least, and here's one."

She stares him down before rolling her eyes. "Josh please, we're barely hanging onto our social rung as is. We're currently at 'slushies when we make popular people angry.' I'd rather not drop to 'daily slushies' thank you very much."

He visibly deflates at her words. "I thought we said that popularity would never matter."

She looks down at her feet, unable to meet his eyes. "Well yea, but I'd like to make my life as easy as I can while I'm stuck here. And self-preservation says doing something as suicidal as joining a singing club is a no go."

His eyes flash with understanding. "I get it; I just thought you'd be excited." He is right though. If the situation were a bit different, Jess would maybe jump at the chance to sing. Josh pats her on the back. "I won't bring this up again, promise."

"Thanks." Her lips form a small smile before she smacks him on the shoulder again.

"Ow! What the heck?!" He's rubbing his arm again, looking at her incredulously.

"That's for getting all mushy on me. First week of school hasn't even ended yet and look at how sentimental we got. Gross." Jess feigns disgust with a rather broad smile plastered on her face.

It's Josh's turn to roll his eyes as he speaks. "Well then, how about I make it up to you by letting you film _and_ edit today." He makes a grand gesture before holding out his camera, adding a smile at the end of his flourish

"I feel so incredibly honored." Her words drip with sarcasm, but she takes the camera anyways. "You be happy that I can't just hand this off to Jane."

Jane had been Josh's former senior AV personnel for the school news blog, Kelser Social. He wrote and recorded almost weekly on the different happenings in the school. The gossip corner was by far the most popular page but, the website was generally well received by the school.

The blog was the main reason the two (and anyone associated with Kelser Social) were on mid-way of the social ladder. The pair was somewhat notorious for having eyes and ears everywhere, so ruining anyone socially wasn't too difficult of a task. However, it wasn't something either did on the regular. In fact, it only happened once. But gossip easily twisted the truth ('I heard they ran them out of town.', 'Rumor is that they got him shipped to boot camp.') and neither bothered to correct the stories.

"Ah yes, what a shame. Too bad all of the new recruits don't even know how to hold a camera steady. On the bright side, I found some new writers!" He beamed at his ever growing staff. "You're stuck on camera duty until we find some new AV kids to help with the video segment."

She sighs in defeat. "Well come one then, I'm sure there's plenty of material waiting for us."

The two walked off, chatting as they planned for this week's video content.

Unbeknownst to Jess, the flyer was still in Josh's hand.

* * *

Remember that one time I tried to write an syoc and then I dropped it before I even accepted characters… and then I did that again. Ahahahahaha. Good times.

Ok but yea I'm back from the grave! And yes this first chapter is basically a rehash of Bring Out the Sound's intro chapter. But! I feel like I've grown as a writer and the quality of my writing has increased! So the plan is to try and update this a frequently as I can manage. I can't give you an exact schedule, but my current goal is one every other week. This may change and there's no guarantee I'll post on time.

I plan on being extremely picky about who I choose in terms of characters so make them good! If you recall from my previous story, I needed a rich donor type character. I still need that for this story! Their parents basically donated a rather large sum to get the club going, other than that I have no other specifications.

Please send me a large variety of characters! I'll need some minor antagonist and some rival members so send them in too!

With that, here are the rules.

1) **Be original as possible**. Don't copy from other tv shows, but feel free to use them as inspiration!

2) **NO MARY OR GARY SUES. I don't want perfect characters.** What's the point? Each character has a journey throughout the story and perfect characters have the blandest ones.

3) That said, don't overdo it with backgrounds. Yes, parents die and stuff happens but try to be realistic. No 'my family was murdered by my brother and now revenge is what fuels my life force and I sing on the side' stuff.

4) Be realistic in terms of skill. Not everyone is a genius and keep in mind that these are high schoolers.

5) **Please no posting them in the reviews**! I'd like for your character to remain private between us.

6) You are allowed to send in as many characters as you like, but I will only be accepting a maximum of two. Make sure not intertwine any of them to the point where I would NEED to accept both. Minor characters are an exception to this rule (e.g.: 2 main characters and a rival glee club member).

7) Be detailed in the application. The more detail, the more better built your character is.

8) To be sure you've read all or most of this, list your characters favorite color in the anything else section of the application and title you pm as "Life's Soundtrack-(Character name here)"

9) **NO SIBLING OR ANY RELATION TO GLEE CHARACTERS.**

10) Please to abide by these rules as not doing so will severely limit your chances of getting in, so please read and listen.

11) THIS IS NOT FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE.

 **Have fun!**

The form is on my profile as well as the link to the tumblr for this story.

A follow up chapter will be up soon (hopefully). If a donor character is submitted soon and they are accepted, they will be in the next chapter. If not, the next chapter will be the introduction of the glee moderator and coach.

I look forward to seeing your characters!


	2. Haven't You Noticed (The Bite of '03)

**AN: Hey there! Sorry for not updating sooner. I went on a short vacation and ended up dropping my laptop. The outcome is that the thing ran so dang slow and I had to get it repaired. Now it runs like a charm.**

 **Anyways, onto the story!**

* * *

'You can do this.' Elliot runs a hand through his coiffed jet black hair, careful to not ruin the 'I totally got out of bed looking like this, even though it took me at least 20 minutes to get it looking this good' style he had going on. He takes a deep breath before letting out with a quiet whoosh, trying to calm himself. The school day ended without much trouble and he'd like to keep it up.

He opens the door and smiles at the rather intimidating looking principle... Or rather, her back. She's facing the windows of her office and the only thing he gets to see is long blonde locks along with the back of her chair. "You wanted to see me, Kiera." His voice is meek and remains standing, careful not to enter without further prompting.

"Indeed. Come take a seat, Elliot." He all but scurries to the two seats that are on the opposite of her desk. Elliot Zhang had been working at Kelser High for about three years now and Principal Watson still terrified him just a bit.

Kiera turns her chair and looks rather regal (and just as terrifying). Her blue eyes seem to bore into Elliot's and for someone who's in her fifties, she doesn't look older than forty. "Now I'm just going to get this out of the way. We received a generous sum of money from an anonymous donor, however there are some stipulations." She cleans the nonexistent mess from the top of her desk, no longer looking at Elliot.

"They requested that the school start and glee club. The board agreed to this." Elliot only quirks an eyebrow at the mention of the condition, still a bit lost with how this deals with him. Her attention finally returns to the man. "We would like you to coach the club."

"I'm sorry what?" His tone is incredulous and he's staring at her, slightly slack-jawed. "Kiera, I think you're mistaken. I'm a biology teacher. I think you should be talking to Tim." Timothy Moritz was quite the band director and would know everything about music. Although, he probably shouldn't be dancing. The poor man walked around with quite the limp, but the students would probably get a kick out his toupee flying off his balding head in the middle of a dance step. Shiny things were quite the distractor, even with what little graying locks he had left.

"Now Elliot, while the school district does little to look into our staff previous employment, I like to be more prepared." With that, she turned her monitor around and the image on screen made Elliot cringe on the inside. There in all his platinum blonde glory was Elliot circa '03. God, he knew that his career (if one could even call a single EP a career) would come back to bite him. He's wearing possibly the baggiest black pants with a pair of garish Nike gold diggers and a rather sheer gold top. His almond shaped eyes hadn't changed much in the years outside of the slightest crow's feet now, but he was wearing circle lens in this photo and the normally brown irises were a very bright blue. Just looking at the photo made his head hurt.

Elliot's head hits the desk with quite some force as he lets out a quiet groan. "Careful now, this is mahogany." Kiera easily quips with no real weight in her words as she leans over to pat him on the back.

"Ma'am I mean this in the most respectful way possibly, but I don't think the school can even afford a mahogany desk." Is the muffled reply she receives, eliciting a chuckle from the principal. "I suppose not. But yes, I do know your past as 'L'. Interesting stage name might I add."

'Ugh god, please no more reminders.' He was very much into Japanese pop culture back then (and not in a good way), with a certain manga being the inspiration for the name. L was similar enough to his own name, not to mention Light was just too odd. "You aren't trying to blackmail me are you, Kiera?"

She lets out a laugh at his words, tossing her head back and Elliot lifts his head and simply squints his brown eyes, careful to school his features back to something close to neutral when she starts to calm down. "Excuse me." KIera coughs as she straightens herself. "No, I am not trying to 'blackmail' you. Your career is not something to laugh at and I would love to have you lead this club. I see no one better for the job."

More like no one qualified wanted said job and the newest teacher was basically going to have to accept the position. He sits up straight and scratches the back of his head. "Well I can't say no to that, now can I?"

"Perfect!" Is the exclaimed response he receives and the principal begins to rifle through her desk before handing him a sheet of paper. Upon further inspection, it's a flyer for the club listing information such as sign up deadline along with audition date and location. "I can't wait to see what you do with the students."

He looks at the piece of paper, a lump in his throat. "Yep, me either."

* * *

"And that's all we have for you this week on Kelser Social! Tune in next week as we'll take a look at the latest sports with Donnie Howell." The sophomore finishes with an eye smile and finger guns.

"And that's a wrap! Nice work Em. But uh, take it easy on the hand gestures next time." Jess pipes up from behind the camera. Emilia gives her some vigorous nods before she hands the microphone over to Josh and scuttles off.

"I think they're endearing." He says after the sophomore was off the stage and nearly out of the auditorium. He's wrapping cables around his forearm and elbow as Jess packs away the camera.

"They're distracting and we'll have to edit around them." Her tone is matter of fact, ignoring the frown Josh gives her as she snaps the camera case close. "But I suppose they are a tad endearing."

Josh's pout morphs into a grin at her words and nudges his friend. "More than a tad and you know it." She only rolls her eyes at that. "So I have a favor to ask. I need to meet up with Margot, we're doing some website maintenance."

She knows where this is going and finishes his request before he can get it out. "Yea, go ahead. I'll lug all of this heavy equipment. On my own. Like a poor damsel, even though her knight should be doing this." Jess lifts her hand to her forehead, faking distress as she pretends that the equipment case is far too heavy for her to carry.

Josh laughs at her antics and she joins in eventually. "Yes, yes. I apologize princess. I'll clean it up next time." He grabs his backpack before sprinting off the stage.

"I'm holding you to it and don't forget to shut the doors." She calls out to the white streaked blur before shaking her head. Luckily a good portion of the equipment is packed away, with only a couple of chords left. Jess surveys the mess of tangles before shaking her head and pulling out her phone. This calls for some detangling tunes.

With the volume turned up, Jess starts the task.

 _I can't help it if I make a scene,_  
 _Stepping out of my hot pink limousine._  
 _I'm turning heads, and I'm stopping traffic,_  
 _When I pose, they scream, and when I joke, they laugh._

Her voice starts off soft, but it begins to rise in volume as she continues the song. She even begins to act out parts of the lyrics, posing and abandoning her task.

 _I've got a pair of eyes that they're getting lost in,_  
 _They're hypnotized by the way I'm walking,_  
 _I've got them dazzled like a stage magician,_  
 _When I point, they look, and when I talk, they listen, well,_

 _Everybody needs a friend,_  
 _And I've got you and you and you_  
 _So many, I can't even name them,_  
 _Can you blame me? I'm too famous._

She's lost in the song, having more fun than she'd ever publicly admit. Jess executes a spin, not seeing that she's got an audience. Elliot is leaning against the door frame as he watches his student, a small grin begins to form on his lips.

 _Haven't you noticed that I'm a star?_  
 _I'm coming into view as the world is turning._  
 _Haven't you noticed I've made it this far?_  
 _Now, everyone can see me burning._

 _Now, everyone can see me burning._  
 _Now, everyone can see me burning._  
 _Now, everyone can see me burning._

She finishes the song with the cellphone in her hand, acting a faux microphone, clasped between both of her hands. Jess is looking upwards, brown eyes appearing glazed and she's still oblivious to Elliot's presence. That is, until he starts clapping.

The noise makes Jessica jump and her phone goes flying out at her start. It takes a comical amount of fumbling to keep the device from hitting the floor as she seems to swat it upwards with every attempt to catch it.

Elliot stifles a chuckle as he watches before apologizing. "Sorry about the scare, Jessica. I didn't mean to sneak up on you."

Jess is blushing rather profusely at this point, her pale skin taking on a bright red. At the moment, she's torn between hiding her face by using her chestnut brown hair as a something of a curtain and throttling her biology teacher along with a few veiled threats to ensure no one learns of her little 'show.' Instead, she smiles sheepishly at Elliot knowing that the former choice won't do much for her at this point and the latter will probably land her in detention.

"Hey, Mr. Z. Didn't see you there." Her words are stilted and her laughs sounds incredibly awkward to her own ears. "What brings you to the auditorium? I don't think we have an interview with you scheduled." The question has a tinge of accusation as Jess feels mortification crawling all over her skin right now.

"Ah, so that's what all the camera equipment is for. But no, I'm not here for that. I just happened to be passing by the auditorium on my way out of campus when I heard you. You sound quite nice." It was a good thing that the doors just happened to be opened, as Elliot just found some talent for the glee club. What luck!

"Uh, thanks Mr. Z." Jessica tries her very best not to let her murderous thoughts seep into her smile. She and Josh were going to have a serious talk after this. That conniving rat better not have told their teacher to take the long way out to the school parking lot too. If so, she'd probably up their 'talk' to murder.

Joshua Casper. Loving son and terrible best friend. Will probably be missed by like, three people. Maybe four.

"I'm not sure if you heard, but the school is starting a glee club this year and I just so happen to be the coach. You should sign up for auditions!" If the girl does end up joining, he'll have at least one friendly face in the club. This will hopefully make the whole experience (and maybe the year) just a tad less awkward.

"Oh, um yea I saw the flyers. Looks like a great time, but I'm not sure if it's my scene." My scene? Really? In all honesty, glee club is not part of her four year survive high school plan in any way shape or form. Ok yes, one of her more tolerable teachers is the coach and maybe she really needs another music outlet outside band, but lord it is not worth it. Probably.

"Just give it some thought. Actually, here." Elliot digs up the flyer Kiera gave him, now with a few wrinkles as he folded the piece of paper up to fight into his breast pocket, and hands it to the other. "It has the date and everything. Who knows, this might be your 'scene' and it'll be fun!" He wants to add an 'I promise' at the end of his statement, but he can't even guarantee that enough people will show up for auditions. "I'll see you tomorrow." He waves as he leaves, hoping that he just found his first recruit.

She stares at the piece of paper, not bothering to reply to Elliot as he leaves. And she continues to look at it long after her teacher is gone. That voice from this morning is a bit louder now and it whispers words of encouragement. That this club will be worth it.

This time she folds the flyer up carefully and tucks it into one of her jacket pockets. She turns back to the previously forgotten chords, humming the tune of the song she sang before.

* * *

 _ **Songs featured in this chapter:**_

 _ **Haven't You Noticed (I'm a Star) - Olivia Olsen**_

 **I'm not used to writing so much, but I hope the length of this chapter is to everyone's liking.**

 **Still no donor character, so if anyone would like to send one in that would be great! Also more boys,** **please. I have received more girls so far. Nonbinary characters are also encouraged!**

 **I have a few submissions so far but not enough for me to post a full character list. And so I pose a question to you, the readers. Would you like to me to start writing the next chapters with characters I have intentions of accepting or would you rather I wait for a full cast list before the next update? I'll have a poll on my profile that you can respond in.**

 **I currently don't have a close date for character submissions so please send more!**

 **Be sure to check out the tumblr** **for this story and feel free to follow my writing twitter for miscellaneous updates. Both of these are listed on my profile.**

 **Oh, if you have any questions, please leave them in the tumblr i** **nbox or ask me on twitter. PMing me here will also work just as well. Reviews generally aren't a good way as I can't respond.**


End file.
